ἀρεστός — Pork-barreling in Acts 12:2?

Semantic Range, Lexicography, and other approaches to word meaning - in general, or for particular words.
Post Reply
Stephen Hughes
Posts: 3323
Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

ἀρεστός — Pork-barreling in Acts 12:2?

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Acts 12:1-3 wrote:Κατ’ ἐκεῖνον δὲ τὸν καιρὸν ἐπέβαλεν Ἡρῴδης ὁ βασιλεὺς τὰς χεῖρας κακῶσαί τινας τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας.
2 Ἀνεῖλεν δὲ Ἰάκωβον τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἰωάννου μαχαίρᾳ. 3 Καὶ ἰδὼν ὅτι ἀρεστόν ἐστιν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις, προσέθετο συλλαβεῖν καὶ Πέτρον — ἦσαν δὲ αἱ ἡμέραι τῶν ἀζύμων —
What type of pleasure is expressed by the ἀρεστός (+dat.) here? To my mind it is like a. "Yes, that's needed doing" nod of approval (which perhaps lead Herod to believe the Jews might be more easily governed), (rather than a relishing personal satisfaction type of pleasure). In effect then, the mal-treatment of Christians was a form of pork-barreling.

If that is so, then in BDAG terms that means that in this instance ἀρεστός is related to ἀρέσκω (1).
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
cwconrad
Posts: 2112
Joined: May 5th, 2011, 5:52 pm
Location: Burnsville, NC 28714
Contact:

Re: ἀρεστός — Pork-barreling in Acts 12:2?

Post by cwconrad »

Stephen Hughes wrote:
Acts 12:1-3 wrote:Κατ’ ἐκεῖνον δὲ τὸν καιρὸν ἐπέβαλεν Ἡρῴδης ὁ βασιλεὺς τὰς χεῖρας κακῶσαί τινας τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας.
2 Ἀνεῖλεν δὲ Ἰάκωβον τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἰωάννου μαχαίρᾳ. 3 Καὶ ἰδὼν ὅτι ἀρεστόν ἐστιν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις, προσέθετο συλλαβεῖν καὶ Πέτρον — ἦσαν δὲ αἱ ἡμέραι τῶν ἀζύμων —
What type of pleasure is expressed by the ἀρεστός (+dat.) here? To my mind it is like a. "Yes, that's needed doing" nod of approval (which perhaps lead Herod to believe the Jews might be more easily governed), (rather than a relishing personal satisfaction type of pleasure). In effect then, the mal-treatment of Christians was a form of pork-barreling.

If that is so, then in BDAG terms that means that in this instance ἀρεστός is related to ἀρέσκω (1).
Well, yes, but I wonder how far one ought to be pushing etymological connections. I think there are links also to ἀραρίσκειν, perhaps even to ἀρετή. My impression is that the sense of ἀρεστός is that its nearest English equivalent is probably the archaic adjective "meet." Luke does seem particularly astute at grasping the motives of a political move.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Post Reply

Return to “Word Meanings”